Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Carr, Nicholas

doi:10.12987/9780300156508-009

Cited by 14 publications

(19 citation statements)

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“…The internet is a remarkable source of information, one that makes it seem less important to remember things on our own and creates a growing dependence on the internet, a dependence that appears to affect the functioning of our own memories (Carr, 2008; Giebl et al, 2021; Marsh & Rajaram, 2019; Nestojko et al, 2013; Sparrow & Chatman, 2013; Storm & Soares, in press; Storm et al, 2020; Ward, 2013a, 2013b). Offloading information to the internet and then only remembering where to find it bypasses the retrieval processes that might not only enhance our learning and understanding of information we already possess but of related new information as well.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinking first versus googling first: Preferences and consequences.

Giebl¹,

Mena²,

Sandberg³

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

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On the internet, we can look up information that is not in one’s memory, but also information that is in one’s memory, but does not come immediately to mind. We become susceptible, therefore, to googling before trying to retrieve, which bypasses the benefits of “retrieval as a memory modifier” (Bjork, 1975), including that even a failed attempt to retrieve yet-to-be-learned information can potentiate learning of new information. Across four experiments, participants were asked to either generate answers to trivia questions before consulting the internet (thinking-before-googling), search for answers on the internet (googling-right-away), read questions and answers presented simultaneously (presented-with), or generate answers before being presented with answers (thinking-before-presented). Overall, thinking-before-googling led to better recall than did googling-right-away. Such a finding is striking in several respects, including that 81% of participants said they tended to immediately search the internet as opposed to thinking first.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thinking first versus googling first: Preferences and consequences.

Giebl¹,

Mena²,

Sandberg³

et al. 2023

Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition

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“…La convergencia de medios, géneros y formatos en las redes modifica el panorama comunicacional hacia una amalgama de textos y contextos multimedia donde se mezclan las funciones de informar, entretener y educar; donde prima el anuncio impactante y la competencia por vender titulares (Sánchez-Ventero, 2018); donde se ‘picotean’ las noticias sin profundizar sobre los hechos y su posible trascendencia (Carr, 2008); donde la tarea de informar ya no es exclusiva de los profesionales; donde la información se convierte cada vez más en espectáculo (Postman, 1985), y donde, en definitiva, la verdad se funde y confunde con la mentira.…”

Section: Educación Mediática Frente a La Monetización En Youtube: La ...unclassified

“…The convergence of media, genres and formats in the different networks shifts the communicative landscape towards an amalgam of multimedia texts and contexts in which the functions of informing, entertaining and educating are mixed; where the punchy announcement and competing to sell headlines dominates (Sánchez-Ventero, 2018); where news is cherry-picked without delving into the facts or their possible significance (Carr, 2008); where the task of informing is no longer the domain of the professionals; where information is increasingly turning into a spectacle (Postman, 1985); and where, in short, the truth is merged and fused with lies.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Media education with the monetization of YouTube: the loss of truth as an exchange value / Educación mediática frente a la monetización en YouTube: la pérdida de la verdad como valor de cambio

Martín

González

Mariño

2019

Cultura y Educación

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The digital age of post-truth is the ideal breeding ground for fake news and misinformation. In the world of social networks and the Internet in general, commercial interests hold primacy over the importance of the veracity of the information provided. In this study, we have carried out a quantitative and qualitative content analysis of the messages published as comments on the most popular videos about Pokémon Go published in Spanish on YouTube. The main objective of the study is to analyse not only the content of the videos but, above all, users' reactions to the misinformation provided. The results confirm the hypothesis that misinformation is promoted by the crisis of truth as a journalistic and social value, by economic interest and by the lack of suitable media education. We conclude by advocating the need to recover truth as a journalistic and social value in the digital context, and to accept that media literacy is an essential task to be assumed by all educational agents: schools, media and social groups.

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“…There's an ongoing public debate about the net influence of KEs on whether they make us collectively smarter (Thompson 2013), less intelligent (Carr 2010(Carr , 2012, or if their profound effect on the way we think is due to the quality and depth of information available on the web (Weinberger 2011).…”

Section: Search Engines Are Knowledge Enginesmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Do You Need to Know to Use a Search Engine? Why We Still Need to Teach Research Skills

Russell

2015

AI Magazine

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For the vast majority of queries (for example, navigation, simple fact lookup, and others), search engines do extremely well. Their ability to quickly provide answers to queries is a remarkable testament to the power of many of the fundamental methods of AI. They also highlight many of the issues that are common to sophisticated AI question-answering systems. It has become clear that people think of search programs in ways that are very different from traditional information sources. Rapid and ready-at-hand access, depth of processing, and the way they enable people to offload some ordinary memory tasks suggest that search engines have become more of a cognitive amplifier than a simple repository or front-end to the Internet. Like all sophisticated tools, people still need to learn how to use them. Although search engines are superb at finding and presenting information—up to and including extracting complex relations and making simple inferences—knowing how to frame questions and evaluate their results for accuracy and credibility remains an ongoing challenge. Some questions are still deep and complex, and still require knowledge on the part of the search user to work through to a successful answer. And the fact that the underlying information content, user interfaces, and capabilities are all in a continual state of change means that searchers need to continually update their knowledge of what these programs can (and cannot) do.

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Is Google Making Us Stupid?

Cited by 14 publications

References 0 publications

Thinking first versus googling first: Preferences and consequences.

Thinking first versus googling first: Preferences and consequences.

Media education with the monetization of YouTube: the loss of truth as an exchange value / Educación mediática frente a la monetización en YouTube: la pérdida de la verdad como valor de cambio

What Do You Need to Know to Use a Search Engine? Why We Still Need to Teach Research Skills

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